From the Calgary Herald – Dec 17, 2009

Two things have become clear from the snow removal fiasco: the system is broken, and our current council and administration have no idea how to fix it.

In fact, our problems with snow removal could be seen in the context of the general problem with our city: we’ve taken the kinds of things we did when we were a city of 300,000 or so, and multiplied the budgets by four.

This doesn’t work. A city of a million people is not just like a city of a half-million, only bigger. It needs to think about the services it provides in a different way — social problems grow exponentially, as do people’s needs for services.

Our patterns of growth exacerbate the issue. Urban sprawl means there are more areas to police, more fire stations required, and yes, more roads to plow. These costs don’t increase in lock-step with population.

Unfortunately, council and administration are locked into the mindset of how things have been done and it’s very difficult for them to break it.

The striking thing about the emergency debate on snow removal this week was its utter randomness. “Let’s have more snow fences,” said one alderman. “Let’s dip into our reserves so that we can spend more and taxpayers won’t feel it,” said another. “I know,” piped up a third, “let’s get insurance companies to pay!” (This last one defies all common sense. If accidents and injuries decline, shouldn’t our premiums go down? Why should we pay higher premiums to subsidize the city’s inaction.)

What we did not get, and have not had, is the honest methodical discussion that so many Calgarians are asking for. What do we expect of our city? What’s the best way to deliver it? And how will we pay for it?

What we know is that the city has overspent its snow removal budget in 14 out of the last 17 years. We further know that council, in its budget deliberations last month, showed no interest in really tackling this problem, beyond a small pilot project using private contractors in residential areas.

We also know that the organization lacks imagination. We are told that any increase in the plowing budget means tax increases, and these are detailed to the penny based upon how many extra kilometres will be done.

Calgarians are willing to pay more — survey after survey shows this — but they are also right to doubt this math. First, it assumes that there is no room to move in the city’s $2.5 billion budget, that every other thing the city does is a higher priority than improving snow clearing. We know that’s not true, but the city seems unable to hear that message.

Further, it seems that no one at City Hall is willing to think creatively. In a private business, if one element of your operations has a great deal of risk, you don’t systematically underfund it. You manage the risk, potentially through outsourcing or privatization. The same holds true here. If the city is unable to budget for snow removal properly, hire someone who does.

I have friends who pay a flat fee for shovelling their walk whether it snows or not — in some years, the neighbourhood kid makes a lot of money, in others, he works really hard for less return. He’s set his prices so things even out over the long run.

There’s no reason why the city can’t do the same. Hiring small companies that have flexibility (if there’s no snow, they will find other sources of revenue) to take over all of our snow removal may be one way out of this pickle. Or it may not. But we need leaders willing and able to ask the right questions, and that’s what we currently lack.

Naheed Nenshi teaches at Mount Royal University’s Bissett School of Business and volunteers with the Better Calgary Campaign. bettercalgary.ca

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